In a wide spectrum of highly automated industries around the world, large volumes of cylindrical articles such as containers with relatively rigid side walls in constant flow have to be rearranged and ordered into a single file in a continuous flow. An ongoing need exists to efficiently single file these cylindrical articles for filling or packaging or other action such as inspecting, packaging, washing, rinsing, filling, labeling or capping within as small a working area as possible. Examples of these are the container manufacturers for and the actual end producers of the Food, Beverage, Brewery, Pharmaceutical, Oil and Paint Industries. The containers are of glass, plastic, metal (aluminum or steel), or composite. Automotive and like or related industries using assembly line techniques similarly require ordering of cylindrical pistons and other cylindrical parts for handling in automated systems in large quantities in their various assembling and machining processes.
In order to maximize a high degree of operating efficiency on these conveyor lines, a surge or accumulation area between each section of processing equipment is desirable, because momentary or intermittent disruptions in the feed in a production line would otherwise mean that within seconds each section of upstream process equipment would have to shut down. Without reserve areas of accumulation between each section, the entire production line would have to stop and start frequently, thus reducing the efficiency of the entire production operation.
Following each of these surge or accumulation areas, it is necessary to order the articles into a single file, in order to feed the articles to the next piece of downstream equipment. Many types of ordering systems have been proposed for this purpose.
Tice U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,706, patented Jan. 27, 1976, provides an apparatus for channeling a disorderly array of articles that are being transported on a conveyor into a uniform single row of articles. The apparatus includes a pair of spaced article confining walls. The walls converge towards each other in a direction corresponding to the flow of the articles. One of the walls has a plurality of longitudinally spaced vertically extending rows of beads provided thereon for engaging the disorderly array of articles as they pass therethrough and force such into single file while minimizing jamming. These beads are rotatably supported, so that as the articles of the disorderly array engage the beads while being moved forward on the conveyor, the beads tend to rotate, permitting the articles to be moved through the narrow end of the spaced walls without jamming. The wall with the beads thereon can be referred to as a live wall and takes the overall configuration of an abacus.
Beard U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,647, patented Dec. 21, 1971, notes that in the packaging of fluids within containers and in many other similar article-handling operations, it is frequently necessary to transform a plurality of articles advancing abreast, or as a disorganized mass, into a single row for operations incident to the packaging operation, or other operations in which the articles are being used. This arrangement of articles into a single row is fraught with problems, particularly where a very high speed of travel of the articles is involved.
Most of such articles have a natural tendency to nest or move into random relation, due in part to their complete or partial cylindrical configuration, and, so long as the articles move smoothly in the forward direction, the majority of the articles will feed into tandem relation under urging of converging guide rails normally employed for this purpose. However, jam-ups, or instances where the articles do not move into tandem relation but become jammed between the guide walls, are sufficiently frequent to materially interrupt the smooth operation of the packaging line or other article-handling operation, and to be of much concern.
Beard notes that many attempts have been made heretofore to provide apparatus which will prevent such jam-ups of articles between the guide rails or, in the event that such a jam-up occurs, to quickly dislodge the articles from the jammed condition so that they may continue to move forward. However, such previous attempts have been unsuccessful, in that they have either not been effective for preventing the jam-ups or dislodging the articles from between the guide rails, or have so materially interfered with forward movement of the articles as to completely negate the natural tendency of the articles to nest or move into tandem relation, and have thereby introduced ancillary problems. These latter attempts have usually involved spring-pressed guide bars normally disposed in the path of travel of the articles, and serving to retard their movement until the pressure of oncoming articles overcomes the spring bias thereof, to move them out of the way and permit the articles to advance. This retardant against the smooth forward movement of the articles encourages jam-ups, rather than obviating them.
Beard further notes that it has been previously proposed that jam-ups be prevented by substantially agitating the articles at all times as they move along their predetermined path of travel. However, this continuous agitation is highly undesirable, since it negates the natural tendency of the articles to nest or move into tandem relation, and since, in the case of fragile articles, breakage frequently occurs.
With the foregoing in mind, Beard provides an article combiner which arranges a plurality of articles advancing abreast in tandem relation to form a single row thereof without appreciably interfering with forward movement of the articles or their natural tendency to nest or move into tandem relation.
Converging guide means are provided for smoothly guiding a plurality of articles advancing abreast into a single row, with means being provided for quickly and effectively dislodging articles from a jam-up, should one occur.
Referring to FIG. 1, the terminal end portion of the first conveyor 12 and the beginning portion of the conveyor 13 form a part of the article combiner, which also includes first and second guide means 14, 15 which are disposed in converging relation above and adjacent to these portions of first conveyor 12 and second conveyor 13.
First guide means 14 includes agitating means 16 for agitating articles brought into contact therewith to free the articles from any jammed condition, and to facilitate arrangement thereof in tandem relation without appreciably interfering with forward movement thereof along the predetermined path of travel. Agitating means 16 comprises a bank of freely rotatable rollers 17 mounted for rotation about generally vertical axes extending parallel to the articles being conveyed by the conveyors. Rollers 17 are arranged in vertically extending rows and, as illustrated, there are three rollers in each row, with the rollers of adjacent rows being staggered relative to each other and with their adjacent peripheral portions overlapping.
First guide means 14 also includes buffer means 30 for normally maintaining articles out of contact with agitating means 16, so as normally not to permit agitating means 16 to appreciably interfere with the natural tendency of the articles to nest or move into tandem relation, but permitting contact of the articles with the agitating means 16 upon a predetermined resistance to further forward movement of certain articles, as upon a jam-up of articles between the first and second guide means, such that the agitating means 16 may agitate these articles and free them from any such jammed condition. As illustrated, buffer means 30 comprises a pair of vertically spaced-apart guide bars 31 preferably formed of nonscarring, friction-reducing material.
These devices have only limited success in accomplishing their task. The live wall of spherical beads of U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,706 actually does very little turning as the cylindrical articles pass by, and even when they do turn, there is no additional give or moment of movement resulting from the turning, due to their spherical shape. The same is true of the turning of the round rollers of U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,647. Even if the round rollers do turn upon tangential contact of the cylindrical articles, there would be no additional give or moment of movement resulting that would further encourage the cylindrical objects to slip by one another.
The only real give or agitating movement of the cylindrical articles as they are forced along the path of the guide walls made up of spherical beads or round rollers is the in and out movement caused by the peaks and valleys of the staggered rows of spherical beads or round rollers. This does, however, offer some improvement over the solid low-friction wall of that portion of U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,151. These types of solid low-friction shallow inclusive angle converging rails are most often very long, which also requires additional lengths of very costly horizontal conveyor components. Most often, however, many production plants do not have enough floor space to allow adequate single file room for these flat (7.degree. or less) inclusive angle rails.
Since the 1970's there has been a substantial increase in the speed and number of cylindrical articles that flow per unit time through the production lines of the previously mentioned industries. As an example, in a single high speed brewery filling line, as many as 2,200 cans per minute are produced. This has exacerbated the ordering problem, to single file the cylindrical articles, and there is in fact no ordering and combining apparatus available today that is capable of satisfactory performance at such high speeds.